Really, I’m just looking for a discussion on the deal, but I might as well share my thoughts:

-This move reeks of desperation on the part of the Angels, not that it’s surprising. This off-season, they’ve missed out on Adrian Beltre and Carl Crawford, both of whom were highly sought after free agents. In my opinion, the deals that these gentlemen got were both overpays, and that’s essentially what the Angels did by acquiring Wells and assuming his contract, except that they had to give up players.

- Vernon Wells is a very good player, but he’s not an impact player. He doesn’t personally change the landscape of the AL West race (I still favor Oakland, and I think Texas will be second). If you’re going to pay a player 86 million dollars, you better be getting an impact player.

- A huge part of Wells’s value comes from the fact that he has a good bat and plays a position of offensive scarcity. Well, now that he’s in Anaheim, he’s a leftfielder. Torii Hunter, one of the best centerfielders of his generation, was recently moved over to rightfield to make room for young defensive stand-out Peter Bourjos. This means that the Angels have a great defensive outfield, but now they have two corner outfielders who are being paid centerfielder salaries (given their solid, but not great offensive production). Unless…

- Baltimore has acknowledged interest in Vladimir Guerrero, but has said that reports of an impending deal were exaggerated. Now that the Angels have gotten rid of two players who would likely see some DH-time (Rivera and Napoli), is there any way that the Angels bring back Guerrero, put Abreu in left, move Hunter back to center and put Wells in right (with Bourjos still playing about 130 games in a replacement mode)? It means a weaker defense, but Guerrero’s bat would definitely be a major upgrade over Bourjos’s.

- The Blue Jays, in my opinion, win this trade by unloading Wells’s team-binding contract. Their lineup is locked and loaded; I wonder if they regret trading opening day starter Shaun Marcum to the Brewers (regarding this season, of course). They picked up a top free agent second baseman in Brett Lawrie, but keeping Marcum might have given them a chance at competingin 2011. Even though Wells is gone, Toronto got two positional upgrades and, if they’re in a position to make a move around the trading deadline, they can afford to take on the GDP of Guyana in salary.

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76 Responses to “Thoughts on the Wells trade”

Nice summary. For arguments sake someone, but not me, should take the opposite position.

This move reeks of desperation by the Angels and makes one wonder what they were thinking during the Crawford and Beltre negotiations. Toronto is the clear winner here. They get short and long term financial flexibility, a pair of affordable, if not necessarily good value players who can contribute or be trade chips at the deadline.

The Angels don’t seem to have a plan and that’s worse than having one and failing to execute it properly.

Eighty-six million dollars to Arte Moreno is like you and I finding a dollar on the sidewalk.

While the initial depth chart has Wells listed in left field, Mike Scioscia is smarter than that, Wells will play center and either Bourjos or a PTBNL will play left.

The trade also substantially weakens Toronto, especially defensively. An outfield of Rajai Davis, Wells and Travis Snider wasn’t bad, but it’s infinitely better than one of Rivera, Davis and Snider.

And while there’s no denying Napoli’s offensive potential, facing the AL East half the year is alot different than the AL West. He’s also a liability behind the plate and would be at first base also, if for no other reason than he’s relatively new to the position.

There are no viable free agents remaining on the market. Toronto’s only minor league prospect with a decent offensive ceiling just got his ticket back to AAA punched, so while the Jays may have just received a big bank account deposit, they can’t do anything with it.

While I like some of what the A’s did in the offseason, it wasn’t enough to make them the overwhelming favorites, and Texas stayed the course as well.

The Angels offense is still on the shallow side, with Bourjos, Aybar and Izturis expected to play everyday, not to mention Jeff Mathis…but adding Wells to the mix sure helps.

Toronto won the deal in the checkbook, but the Angels won the deal where it counts..on the field.

Chuck: “While the initial depth chart has Wells listed in left field, Mike Scioscia is smarter than that, Wells will play center and either Bourjos or a PTBNL will play left.”

Why wouldn’t they have Hunter play CF instead of Wells? Is an OF combination of (l to r) Bourjos-Wells-Hunter better than an OF of Bourjos-Hunter-Wells?

Unless you’re suggesting that Wells is a better CF than Hunter.

If so, I’m a recently deposed Nigerian prince. I have a 100 million dollar bank account, but it’s recently been frozen. If you can just send me a check for 10 grand, I’ll be able to unfreeze it – and then I would, of course, be sure to send you 5 million dollars from the account to show my appreciation.

1) For one thing, Baltimore is still an AL East team.
2) New York’s #3 starter is AJ Burnett. ’nuff said. (and no, he would not have a 1.89 ERA in the AL West.)
3) Tampa just traded their #2 starter. After Price, that rotation is pretty bare.
4) Boston’s is the only rotation in this division that I would take over Texas, and I would be conflicted as to whether or not to take it over Oakland’s. Gun to my head, I think I would, but still.

And as for the subject at hand, my biggest concern is with his age. Boston signed Crawford thru the same age as Wells is signed for and for about the same money (per year) but: 1) they also get the benefit of what are normally 3 years of peak performance and 2) the 4 additional years come 3 years later which, in terms of MLB salaries, can mean a whole new reality. When ARod signed for $25 million/year it was jaw dropping. Now Ryan Howard is living in the same mansion and Prince Fielder is looking to move into the same neighborhood.

Still, I think it will be turn out to be money better spent than what the National’s paid out to Jayson Werth.

Let’s accept Chuck’s contention that the the Angels’ won this deal on the field. With or without Wells the Jays were not going to contend in 2011 and the Jays’ have set themselves up to be in a position to improve in the future. Toronto dumped a salary commitment of $86M for one of $11.35M.

Where Toronto finishes in 2011 won’t change, but they are in a much better position to improve the team than they were with Wells.

Los Angeles won it on the field (though Toronto’s offense got a little better if you ask me), but Toronto clearly won the trade as a whole.

When Wells starts to tank, no one will want his $20MM salary and Toronto will have locked up their young guys or used their financial felxibility to add key pieces and contend. They’re loading up to take down the aging teams at the top of the division, and they just got a coupon for 75 million bucks of ammo to finish them off down the line.

…And the fact that Pittsburgh’s QB is a rapist and their best linebacker is considering retirement because of all the fines he’s getting for illegal hits and refuses to tackle clean. These guys are worse than the old Cowboys teams. …But man are their games fun to watch.

“Felber” here. I have posted on B-R for a ‘lil while, & just am busy recently, thanks.

Luckily incorrect impressions can easily be checked in the archives. Though a few of my surreal musings disappeared when the old archives were lost, I also demonstrably sometimes posted thanks for an article, agreement with someone,& points of interest.

“Contrarian” is used often-like you in this case Hoss-when someone has a contrary position to yours. Though you have posted many things dramatically disagreeing with the vast majority-like PEDs should not be illegal or any problem in baseball(!), that does not mean you do so insincerely, just to cause strife.

Being able to disagree without being disagreeable is a basic bit of maturity. Likewise, the converse is not assuming bad/ungenuine (sic) motivations when someone disagrees with you, that only your motives are pure. The only polite “umbrage” I recall taking in this regard-I would be happy to look at the record Hoss- is w/you,the rare inexplicable case where the former was cynically postulated.

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